The effectiveness of external feminine sanitary protection products such as sanitary napkins depends upon a good fit, which serves to minimize discomfort and provide the maximum absorbent surface area. However, despite the importance of fit to sanitary protection, most prior art napkins are secured either by adhesion to an undergarment or rely on the use of belts, safety pins or clips and other attachment means. Typically the undergarment itself doesn't fit well, and even if it does, nothing prevents the pad from bunching and minimizing the absorbent surface area. Further, the adhesives often fail, and the pad shifts and fails in its primary task. Belts provide greater security, but they are bulky, restrictive, uncomfortable, and few women use them.
A variety of sanitary products have employed some type of projection to assist in either or both of fluid absorption and fit. U.S. Pat. No. 7,056,312 describes a sanitary napkin with an absorbent tab disposed at an obtuse angle to the napkin body. U.S. Pat. No. 6,997,915 describes a pad including a substantially planar strip adapted to be received between the buttocks of the wearer to thereby help hold the pad in place. U.S. Pat. No. 5,127,911 describes a sanitary napkin with a string that, when pulled, draws together the longitudinal edges of the napkin and forms a contoured projection. U.S. Pat. No. 5,169,394 describes a sanitary napkin having an elongated absorbing member whereby one end is slidably attached to the pad to allow adjustment of the fit. U.S. Pat. No. 4,533,357 describes napkin having a flexible tab portion shaped to comfortably fit between the buttocks of the wearer. U.S. Pat. No. 5,743,896 describes a sanitary napkin having a protrusion insertable between the buttocks of a wearer. EP1332744 describes a sanitary napkin with a gluteal groove strip. U.S. Pat. No. 6,613,031 describes a sanitary napkin having a tail strip extending rearwardly, again to fit between the buttocks. Finally, WO9004956 describes a sanitary napkin having an absorbent stub piece, again to fit between the buttocks.
However, each of these suffers from the same disadvantage, in that the protrusion is either too bulky for comfort, or if sufficiently slender for comfort, then it lacks sufficient absorbency. What is needed in the art is a napkin that is both comfortable and sufficiently absorbent.